Sunday, July 6, 2014

Vintage Kenner Star Wars Vinyl Collector Cases

I had the first Star Wars black vinyl collector's case when it was first released. It was also stolen (or lost) years later full of figures. I didn't realize until recently that there were similar cases released for Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. I had the Darth Vader head collector case and knew about the C3PO, Rebel Transport and Rifle collector cases.

Anyway, my vintage figure collection was stuffed in a USPS box for years. It wasn't until I recently finally made the image of the collection into a custom jigsaw puzzle that I wondered how many I was missing, and how many accessories I was missing.

So I've been on a mission to complete the collection - well at least through Return of the Jedi. I can't even get into Power of the Force at this time. Too expensive, even loose, incomplete. I swear I purchased more of those in the early 90s at flea markets but I must have been wrong.

Anyway, along with completing the collections, I've been buying repro weapons and capes and putting them into the vinyl cases. The Return of the Jedi case is very rare and runs over $100. Occasionally, you can get it between $75-100 on a bidding war that doesn't get out of control.

The insert cards are also rare which shows all the figures. I need to get one for the Empire Strikes back. There were actually two Empire cases released, one with Yoda as the largest image, and one with the Wampa as the largest image.

I realized one case doesn't hold all of the ESB figures released. Missing from this are the Bespin Guards, Lobot and Cloud Car Pilot.